- I built a pantry and stocked it with foods for storage. Beans and cheerios and powdered milk, etc. It turns out that in addition to these, I eat perishable foods, so I routinely had to go to the grocery store anyway. And while I was there, I bought regular milk, because eww.

- I bought a bunch of 5-gallon carboys and filled them up with water in case, y'know, the apocalypse. Never had a water problem (thankfully).

- I stocked up on bleach, masks, and other PPE. And of course it turned out the bleach wasn't super useful because the virus spread mainly through the air. The masks were the only effective prep I made, but then I felt extremely bad about hoarding them from healthcare workers and old people and ended up giving them away.

My point is, there's a wide range of scenarios between public health crisis and full-blown Mad Max. Not preparing for a specific one of these is preparing for none of them, and preparing for a specific one is not preparing for all the others.

Have enough food and water on hand to shelter in place for up to 2 weeks. Never let your gasoline dip below a quarter tank. Have some paperback books and candles on hand. Have some duct tape and plastic drop cloths. Keep some camping gear. Practice not panicking. Keep a bottle of plain, unscented bleach on hand, and practice diluting it to 10% of the bottle concentration.

If you don't already have supplies specific to COVID-19, the desperate and the hoarders have probably already snapped up what you might want, and the opportunists reselling it at a 400% markup.

The only specific measure I am taking is stocking up on drinking water, my supplies of which fluctuate between 15 and 30 days as I consume it and periodically reorder. I am bumping that to 60 on the off chance that there is a major pandemic.

I am one of the high-mortality-risk groups for any respiratory ailment (which is why I religiously get flu shots each year), so it’s entirely possible I will just stay home for a few weeks/months while I wait for any potential outbreak to blow over.

That said, being ill with covid19 sounds like it would be similar to the flu for many people, so I'll stock up on OTC medicines that provide some symptom relief / make it possible to sleep. Mucinex, Nyquil, things of that nature.

Beyond that... I'll add to my stock of non-perishable foods: rice, beans, beef jerky, trail mix, and such-like. I plan to stock up on some bottled water as well, but I don't focus so much on water since A. it's heavy/bulky and hard to store and B. I live near many natural freshwater streams/creeks/lakes/rivers/etc. and I would rather focus on a "water purification capability" than on just stocking large amounts of water. To that end, I already keep some water purification supplies. But the thing I'm thinking about now, is building a distilling outfit. That way, as long as I have water (fresh or salt) available, and fire making supplies and firewood, I can make relatively clean water.

I also plan to add a little more to my stockpile of candles, lamp oil, batteries, etc. And I'll probably use this as an excuse to add to my (small) stash of 9mm ammo as well.

After all, just because COVID-19 may in fact end up contained doesn't mean you're not going to be in a serious earthquake next week or something. Having this stuff widely distributed greatly increases the resiliency of society against all sorts of issues, means you'll be one less person draining valuable resources in case of some disaster, etc. Being at least a bit prepped is the socially responsible thing to do.

Also, don't forget some of the specialized things for an extended in-home stay, which a lot of prep lists don't necessarily focus on (as a lot of them are assuming the problem is that you don't have a home anymore): Toilet paper, paper towels, salt & spices, etc. Anything you don't want to have to suddenly run out and get.

But when people are reacting to the coronavirus, the implicit question isn't what preparations are good to have for general worst case scenarios; it's which preparations you're likely to need, which ones you can no longer afford to be without. As many a doomsday prepper will attest, there's always one more contingency you could plan for, but telling people to start with extreme measures makes it less likely they'll plan at all.

Some things to have besides food storage and a normal supply of medicine would be to have cleaning supplies, maybe gloves and rubbing alcohol, and perhaps face masks. One issue is that face masks may be good to keep available for those who need it most. I'm not sure what is best practice to ensure you aren't taking face masks from healthcare providers or someone more in need.

Second, evaluate your risk. Depending on where you live your danger might be extremely limited, or enormous. But just like during the first wave of the pandemic, location is the key. Is your country threatened by a neighbor? Is it isolated? Is it rich or poor? Do you live close to military or other strategic infrastructure?

Finally, you can start preparing. But only after the first two.

In my case when the corona started spreading I've bought couple of packs of masks, latex gloves, vitamin supplements and antipyretics (reduces fever). And when the first emergency was announced (about 9 days later) I was fine.

I didn't waste money on stuff that remained plentiful, I didn't buy expensive toys like a fallout shelter. I was calm and evaluating my risk before doing something.

You should too.

I see a lot of people here panicking and buying up all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer because they have never thought of this before. It’s best to be prepared, or at least thoughtful about your approach.

In the current case, some are concerned, some are waiting to survive a doomsday, some watched the Contagion movie, some are hoping to make money.

A sane way: For Covid-19, one has to be prepared with basics(food, water, soap, fever-reducing-medicines) for somewhere between 14-27 days of home quarantine (or curfews). And not just assume by default that administration will crumble - they are usually there when you need the basics, except for countries where it has been proven otherwise. Many things that people are stocking up are non-essentials i.e. replaceable with other less comfy methods.

After this is over, the govt. administration can attempt to advertise/educate some preparations for the next unforeseen times. Over a longer period that becomes a cultural habit.

I do not understand why people take unprescribed medicines, especially antivirals as prevention, when that could clearly disturb human microbiome and open up for infections.

Food and water: Added 25 gallons to my normal water delivery

Protein bars, jerky, dehydrated cheese

Peanuts, trail mix, peanut butter

Big sack of rice (save for earthquake kit after April, don’t usually eat rice)

Canned chili, canned stew, canned beans (Carry over to earthquake kit)

Canned tuna

All of this (sans water) is boxed and in a closet.

Supplies:

Already have plenty of n95s

9x12 plastic tarp

Duct tape (specific for this use, not relying on the roll in the drawer)

Bleach

Extra soap and toilet paper

Big thing of hand sanitizer (noticed a lot of out of stock on Amazon)

I already have a significant medical kit.

I’m mostly optimizing for people panicking and it becoming hard to get supplies for a week or two.

A few tips on things that can be stocked (or should be checked) for general disaster preparedness:

0. bottles of clean water. Old milk jugs of tap h20 will do. 1. dry goods like beans and rice which are compatible with boil-water advisories. peanut butter is also good.

2. a fever reducer of some sort. even a few Acetaminophen or aspirin.

3. Cheap bar soap. dollar store or discount brand. The article is correct in that every emergency needs good hygiene. bar soap can be split up among family members.

if you're handy with technology, you should consider an amateur radio license. http://www.arrl.org/ amateur operators are absolutely appreciated by military and red cross workers as the fastest way to get in touch with affected communities.

I prepped for Covid in late February or early March, I was pessimistic in my assumptions, but not by much.

Prepping is important, but you also have to be reasonable when you plan, and you have to be aware of what you can't adapt for (e.g I realized that I had to assume water would still be available, because I couldn't store 14+ days of water in my apartment).

Most of the people who are normally labeled preppers don't have a reasonable assumption of what they prep for. So they try to prepare for the end of the world, not because it is realistically going to happen, but because they need to control things.

Among the things you should have derived from reading more carefully is the fact that state I'm living in is taking it quite seriously. Personally, my hatches are battened down and I'm prepared to be isolated for at least a month, maybe two. (Have to admit it's hard to tell how far my supplies will go, I've never actually had to live on them before.)

You're talking to someone who specially prepped for this about seven weeks ago, in addition to the general prep I already had on hand. If you can match that, then maybe consider start lecturing me. I actually got a bit of flak from my wife for the amount of prepping I did, because it was before she'd hardly even heard there was a new virus. Now she's glad I did, because I bought all the things that are missing in the stores around here now long before it was "hoarding".

I'm in the top tier of taking it seriously. At the same time... Don't panic. Don't advise panic. Don't fall into the cognitive trap of modeling this as a zombie apocolypse or some other thing where the virus is intelligently seeking out victims. Isolation measures will slow the virus down. It isn't possible to keep it "out of the US" but it remains possible to keep it out of your county, or your city, or your neighborhood, with sufficient steps. Total doom is not yet inevitable, and even then, how you are impacted remains significantly under your control even if your government is feckless. Or, at least, it was, if you got your prep in before the panic rush... you may be a bit more at the mercies of your government now.

- don't go to unnecessary crowded events if you can

- start meal prep for medium term food storage (~1 month) if possible

- wear face masks if you have them

Since lots of scientists seem to think the fall/winter is going to get worse (potentially, but hopefully not a 2nd wave on the order of other pandemics). While things are still in stock and people are going around relatively normally, how are people preparing?

We're starting to stock up on dry foods more again (rice/etc have been in stock for a while), toilet paper, trying for some purell/hand wipes; frozen food for dinners; made sure we have enough masks. Feels sort of like a slow motion train wreck. I'm not sure anything else that would be helpful because I don't know how things are going to shut down or barrel through